Road trips, kids, and bizarre things we do in the name of health.

OK, so do you really want to hear about my colon hydrotherapy…? Yes, no, not really? I did promise I’d fill you in, and I will get to it. But first, let me tell you where I am now.

I’m sitting at a hotel pool in Santee, SC. As my kids begged me to get back into the water (wasn’t once enough?) it occurred to me that I spend a lot of time doing stuff so that they can have fun. Sure, sitting poolside isn’t bad, but one of my kids was getting really winey and pestering me to get in and spend some time with him. He had mastered the art of manipulation via guilt. “Come on Mom, stop being one of those moms that never goof off and play and do stuff with their kids, get in the water!”

Yes, we conquered the first leg of our road trip!

Really, did 8 hours in the car not constitute time with you? OK, true, that’s not really quality time. But come on kid, let me just relax. Wow, I even fathomed the idea of writing a blog post while they splashed away, imagine that?

Well, I guess you can… since you are reading it. So a miracle occurred… and I actually zipped around the corner to the hotel room to grab my laptop. Don’t you just love it when people blog about the act of blogging? Does that qualify as content?

Shoot, and now one of my kids is crying. The other two menacers, I mean lovelies, are coming to his rescue. Perhaps I won’t need to intervene. You got this guys! Right?

OK, that was Thursday night. Now I sit here with my laptop on Sunday morning in a tiny, but cute, little rental cottage a few blocks away from Juno Beach, FL. We’re here with my mom, getting some quality time with Grandma, and visiting my brother and his three kids who live near by.

Yesterday was our first non travel day… we baked in the June sun of Florida on pretty Juno Beach. Six cousins, having a ball in the surf, immune to the sweltering heat. Making memories.

I on the other hand, had that gnarly combo of stickyness… gooey sunscreen on my back, combined with sweat, and finished off with the glaring sun to seal the deal.

The kids had a blast. Cousin bonding – check.

We came back from the cottage and I was looking forward to a shower but our hot water heater was out. Jeesh. A plumber had been working on the problem for the last few hours. My mom had graciously (smartly) agreed to skip the beach to wait for the plumber. It still wasn’t working.

We were greeted by the sound of a huge vacuum sucking water via a hose to the water heater. Ahh, sitting in my sweaty ensemble, listening to what sounded like a really loud hairdryer – that’s what I call vacation people!

OK, seriously, I am painting a snarky picture here, but it’s not so bad. I’ve had some great time to talk to my mom and brother while the kids OD on Cartoon Network and Minecraft. And, it really is good to get a change of scenery and mark the beginning of summer with a trip.

My brother and his youngest.

Yesterday, on my first day here, I was poked awake at 4:45am by the elbow of my little bedmate… I stayed awake in bed for a while and then decided to go for a morning run and check out the beach.

I arrived at the beach just in time to see all of these runners with numbers pinned to their shirts, and people at water stations, and somebody on a loud speaker, and music booming. I had happened upon a four mile race – the Run 4 the Sea.

Race to the Sea

Cool, it was just 5 minutes to start time. I decided to run one of the loops with them, but on the sidewalk, whereas they were on the road.

I got hot. I got free water. Nice. I felt a little like Ferris Bueller.

Then I veered off onto my own little exploration of the town. I got the gorgeous shot of the sun coming up over the water right before I happened upon the race. Ahh, good start to my first day of this weeklong adventure.

Juno Beach Sunrise

I had a dream last night about coincidences and synchronicities.

I dreamt that I was having so many, I really needed to make sure I wrote them down. I listed them off in my dream.

Of course now, I can think of just two. One being that I think that it was pretty serendipitous to run into that 4 mile run yesterday.

The other one was last night. I was showing my mom this book that I said I like a lot, but I told her that I couldn’t even really verbalized what the darn book is about, it just resonates with me. It’s called I Am the Word. So she said, hmmm, let me just open the book and sample a little of it. She opened it at random and read, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Perfect.

Maybe I’ll post more later on this road trip as we go along, but I mentioned in my last post that I’d share what that colon hydrotherapy was all about.

I am shaking my head at myself right now… what a weird thing to do and even weirder to want to post about it.

Well, I will tell you that I did my research on where to go, so if you are in the DC metro area, I looked at reviews and called several places, and I do have to say that I was happy with my choice: Vitality Cleansing – by Caroline Alexander. She has an office in Bethesda and another in Northern Virginia.

When I spoke to her on the phone, I felt like I knew her already.

We spoke the same language. We are both fans of Donna Gates, and her probiotic, cultured foods lifestyle. I’d seen Donna speak at a conference two years ago, and it turns out Caroline and Donna are great friends. Caroline was at that same conference handing out samples, and I had gotten one of those samples. Small world. Make that three recent coincidences.

I had watched some Youtube videos of people getting Colon Hydrotherapy. Most places use this old style device. Caroline has the high tech, Mazzerati of devices, the Angel of Water. It really looked like the way to go.

Why did I even want to do this, you ask?

Well, I was trying to embark on a Gallbladder and Liver Cleanse, and they highly recommended getting the pipes cleaned before hand. Why? Basically, so that the ick and toxins coming out of those organs wouldn’t get stuck along the way and reabsorbed into your pipes upon their exit.

All I have to say is, I came out of the experience feeling a little lighter and with a really flat stomach. The set up is such that there is a mirror that reflects the view of what is coming out of you during the 35 minutes of actual cleansing.

This is the point where my mother insists I stop elaborating.

She reviewed my draft post – and said, “heck no!”

So, I’ll leave it at that. Probably a good idea, considering my mother-in-law commented several times that “I’m worried about you, I love you, but this colon hydrotherapy stuff sounds nuts!”

Meanwhile, it’s time to get going, unplug the kids from the screens and start day two of our Juno Beach trip. Happy summer people!